Texas Football: 3 reasons to let Tom Herman stay for rest of the season

2) Why Texas football should let Herman see out the season: Sam Ehlinger

If the Longhorns don’t at least make it back to the Big 12 Championship Game this fall, for the first time since 2018, it would largely be a waste of the senior campaign of star quarterback Sam Ehlinger. This was supposed to be the year where the Longhorns were not only contending to win a Big 12 Title, but where Ehlinger could lead this team to College Football Playoff contention.

Ehlinger is putting together a lot of career-best numbers in his 2020 campaign through five games. The 6-foot-3 and 225 pound signal caller has registered 1,481 passing yards, 17 passing touchdowns, five interceptions, 293 rushing yards, seven rushing scores, 4.5 yards per carry, a career-best 153.8 passer efficiency rating, 61.6 completion percentage, and 8.6 adjusted yards per passing attempt.

This is a year where Ehlinger is leading the Big 12 in a number of rushing and passing categories among quarterbacks and just skill position players in general. He leads the FBS in rushing touchdowns among non-running backs. And he’s still sitting atop the FBS in total touchdowns so far this season, with 24.

Ehlinger needs to clean up the efficiency and consistency at times (hence the five picks in four straight games). But this season would largely be put to waste if the relationship between he and first-year offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich can’t flourish, and if Herman has to see the door off of the Forty Acres early in the fall.